FAIR TRADER

Through Mindful Spending, we aim to slowly harness a small portion of the world's collective purchase power to support Fair Trade companies.

Monday, July 31, 2006

Kateri Tekakwitha Fund

Part of Mission Guatemala, the Kateri Tekakwitha Fund sells Fair Trade products at reasonable prices. Mission Guatemala buys directly from small farmers and artisans in Guatemala, and unlike corporations (e.g. Starbucks), they do not turn around and excessively mark-up the prices of these Fair Trade products. We suggested that they consider participating in the KPFA Holiday Crafts Fair: with their products selling at reasonable prices, they would do well at this popular SF Bay Area event.

Check out their products here. We recently bought some Fair Trade coffee and a bag!

Friday, July 28, 2006

Changing a DSL Modem and Net Neutrality

I just changed our DSL modem, it's about 4 years old, and I decided to change it now rather than have it fry on me. I'm hanging on to the old modem as an emergency backup!

Since I decided to stay with SBC-DSL, changing a DSL modem was easy: I went down to Best Buy to get a Siemens 4100 (the one that SBC is selling through Best Buy), shut down my old modem, replaced it with the new modem, turned everything back on, and I'm back online. My network setup includes a Linksys Router and Wireless Access Point: there was no need to reconfigure those puppies, I literally just replaced the modem. The key is to get a modem your DSL provider certifies/uses, and when you replace the modem, your service will resume as before.

Now that I've plunked $70 on a new modem, I decided to take advantage of SBC's offer for a speed upgrade: for $28/month, I get 3-6 Mbps down and, I think, 386K up. After a year the max. price is $40/month -- at that point I'm free to take advantage of another one of their promos, or switch to another broadband provider.

That means I'm locked in with SBC, one of the opponents of Net Neutrality. As a customer, it gives me the right to complain if they start blocking services that I like -- or when they start crippling ANY services, period. Maybe, my rationale for staying with SBC actually helps Net Neutrality!

Status Anxiety

We just watched this nice documentary on our local PBS station, and loved it. I can't wait to read the book! If you get a chance, check out the documentary.

I liked this "equation" that Alain attributes to William James:
Self-Esteem = Success / Expectation

Thursday, July 27, 2006

Fiasco

Check out this Fresh Air interview with Thomas Ricks, senior Pentagon correspondent for The Washington Post, and a Pulitzer prize winner. Ricks lays out the case for why the US occupation of Iraq has gone awry. He estimates the probability of success (Iraq as a stable, pro-Western democracy), at a mere 5%. His new book should be required reading for every military planner and policy analyst. I can't wait to get a copy from our local library.

Wednesday, July 26, 2006

Engineering Gap: Fact and Fiction

I heard about this study about a month ago: for those who are concerned about the frequently cited estimate of the the number of Science/Engineering graduates in the U.S., compared with China and India, this is a must read.
... A common argument is that we graduate just 70,000 engineers a year vs. 350,000 in India and 600,000 in China, therefore we're in trouble. We reported that the U.S. is actually graduating more engineers than India, and the China numbers aren't quite what they seem. In short, we showed that the U.S. is in much better shape than most people think.

I was surprised by the attention our study received. In addition to extensive media coverage, it caused the National Academies to issue a small revision to a report they recently published on U.S. competitiveness. The New York Times columnist and author Thomas Friedman added a page to the 2006 update of his book The World Is Flat, discussing our report. I was asked to submit written testimony to the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Education and the Workforce.

There are many opinions about what is happening in the engineering field, but here are some of the facts that routinely get lost in the debate:

1. Shortages usually lead to price increases. If there were a shortage of engineers, salaries should have risen. Yet in real terms, engineering salaries have actually dropped.

2. Twenty-five to 40% of engineering graduates don't become engineers. At Duke, I noted that 40% of our Masters of Engineering Management students were accepting jobs in fields such as investment banking and management consulting. Our researchers called other engineering schools and found this was common. Don Giddens, dean of engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology, says that this is by design—U.S. schools provide a broad education that prepares students for careers other than "strictly" engineering.

3. Quantity usually comes at the cost of quality. China has increased the number of engineers it graduates by a staggering 126% over the last five years with a factory-like approach to education. Degree quality can't be maintained unless academic staff and facilities grow with student populations. According to the Chinese Ministry of Education, from 1999 to 2004 the number of technical schools in China actually fell from 4,098 to 2,884. During that same period, the number of teachers and staff at these institutions fell 24%.

4. Graduate too many and you'll create unemployment. China's National Development and Reform Commission recently reported that job openings in China have dropped 22% over the last year and that 60% of China's upcoming university graduates will be unable to find work. Media reports say that in an effort to "fight" unemployment, some universities in China's Anhui Province are refusing to grant diplomas until potential graduates show proof of employment. And Premier Wen Jiabao announced that China would be cutting university enrollment levels.

5. We've got enough qualified computer programmers. The Wall Street Journal reported that Microsoft received résumés from about 100,000 graduating students in 2004, screened 15,000 of them, interviewed 3,500, and hired 1,000. It said that Microsoft receives about 60,000 résumés a month for its 2,000 open positions.

6. The vast majority of engineering undergraduates aren't foreign nationals. According to the American Society of Engineering Education (ASEE), the percentage of undergraduate engineering degrees awarded to students with U.S. citizenship or permanent residency has remained close to 92% for the past seven years.

7. U.S. students don't gain enough financial benefit from postgraduate engineering education. The proportion of domestic to foreign students completing graduate degrees in engineering dropped from 60.3% in 1999 to 57.4% in 2005, and doctoral degrees from 54.4% to 40.4% in the same period, according to the ASEE. In a National Bureau of Economic Research working paper, Harvard economist Richard Freeman says this is because salaries for scientists and engineers are lower than for other professions, and the investment that students have to make in higher degrees isn't cost-justified.

Doctoral graduate students typically spend seven to eight years earning a PhD, during which time they are paid stipends. These stipends are usually less than what a bachelor's degree-holder makes. Some students never make up for this financial loss. Foreign students typically have fewer opportunities and see a U.S. education as their ticket to the U.S. job market and citizenship.

8. The majority of foreign engineering students come here to stay. A report prepared for the National Science Foundation showed that the number of foreign-born doctorates who chose to stay in the U.S increased from 49% to 71% from 1989 to 2003. While these numbers are likely to decline, I'd bet Friedman that they don't decline to 1989 levels.

Tuesday, July 25, 2006

Do New Technologies Improve Education?

Computers and technology can greatly enhance instruction, and it is important to prepare students for an increasingly technical workforce. Unfortunately, folks in Education tend to oversell the benefits of technology's impact on learning. In the quantitative disciplines, technology expands the types of problems one can cover in class, but it should complement/supplement pen and paper problem solving exercises, and not displace it. A new working paper from the London School of Economics:
Findings: Educational expenditure on ICT (Information and Communication Technology) has a positive effect on educational performance. However, its impact differs across disciplines and grade levels, with the strongest effects in primary schools and on English classes. ICT funding has no detectable effect on educational outcomes in secondary schools or on Math instruction. Besides, the effect of ICT appears to grow gradually over time, with greater improvement in test scores two years after the first increase in spending. These results are supported by survey evidence indicating stronger use of ICT in primary schools and in English classes.

Novelty: The paper provides a novel approach to the evaluation of educational spending in ICT. This allows the authors to avoid the major statistical pitfalls that plagued both economics and educational earlier studies. The assessment of the effect of educational ICT expenditure is carried out in a more detailed setting than ever before and provides a broader analysis.

Monday, July 24, 2006

BART

Last Thursday BART had another free day, as part of a series of Spare the Air days. KQED reported the ridership increased by 6%. Based on the 2005 Annual Report, the average is about 310,717 weekday trips: so last Thursday saw about 329,360 trips. That meant, potentially, another 19K people avoided using their cars. Awesome!

Friday, July 21, 2006

How Progressive is the U.S. Federal tax system?

A new working paper from UC Berkeley and Paris:
Findings: Tax progressivity in the US declined significantly over time, mostly to the benefit of rich Americans. Top earners' personal and corporate income taxes have substantially decreased, and payroll taxes have become more regressive. In 1960, the top 0.01% earners paid over 70% in taxes, while in 2005 the same group only paid 35%. Despite this reduction in tax rates, total taxes paid by the top 0.01% increased significantly, reflecting a large growth in the concentration of wealth among this group. Trends in tax progressivity appear to be closely linked to the party in power. International comparisons show that, between 1970 and 2005, tax progressivity substantially declined in the United Kingdom too, while increasing somewhat in France.

Novelty: Identifying the burden of taxation is a critical and much studied issue. This paper makes a unique contribution by examining tax burdens over a long period of time and focusing on the tax payments of the top 1% of income earners. While this group is small in number, it holds a significantly large amount of wealth and pays an even larger share of taxes, and should be given special relevance in any study of taxation.
A well-written book on the recent history of the US tax code, is the 2005 classic written by a NY Times reporter: Perfectly Legal. If you want to understand how Washington works, David Cay Johnston's book is a must-read.

Thursday, July 20, 2006

East Dakotah Natural Food Coop

During my last visit to Sioux Falls five years ago, the East Dakotah Natural Food Coop was in a much smaller space, and closer to downtown. Their new space is so much nicer, and we found ourselves shopping their twice. I think there are a couple of other natural foods stores in Sioux Falls, but East Dakotah is our favorite.

Organic produce and fruit is difficult to obtain in Sioux Falls. It is disappointing when you think that South Dakota is a huge farm state. If you read Michael Pollan, you realize that the large farm states really don't produce that many crops: usually corn and soybeans, and that's it. Sadly, Manhattan or San Francisco may have more plant diversity than Iowa or South Dakota. If you want organic produce, your choices are limited, and for the most part they have been shipped from distant places -- so don't expect your produce to be fresh!

We missed the farmers market in downtown Sioux Falls, I wonder if one can buy a wide variety of organic produce there. Buying locally grown products is tough, hopefully that changes soon.

Wednesday, July 19, 2006

Maveric Heritage Ranch

While preparing for our just-concluded trip to my partner's family reunion in Sioux Falls, SD, I typed in a Sioux Falls zip code into the Eat Well Guide. I was suprised to learn about Maveric Heritage Ranch, a Dell Rapids based ranch:
... established to raise and preserve rare breeds of livestock for the purposes of conservation, genetic diversity and to benefit future generations of all creatures, via selective breeding, increased production and public education.
After a series of emails and calls, the owners agreed to take some time from their busy schedule, and give us a tour of the Ranch. We were extremely excited and thankful, from the little I know about farming, there is no shortage of things to do.

We were treated to about an hour and half tour, in a golf cart, and they patiently explained to us their ranching methods and their goal of preserving rare breeds of hogs, cattle, sheep, and goats. Maveric really reminded me of the farm Michael Pollan wrote extensively about in his recent book. Just like Polyface, the animals at Maveric Heritage Ranch are treated humanely, are fed grass, and are "free-range" and free of hormones and steroids. It was such an educational treat to be able to ask questions in such a relaxed and informal setting.

For some of the rare breeds, Maveric Heritage Ranch actually has 50% or more of the known population in the world. They have been working with researchers from the University of Illinois and Spain, and genetic samples will be used to track these populations over time.

They envision their primary income will be higher-end restaurants, and they are finalizing a contract to supply a restaurant in Wisconsin. We brought back a lot of their ground beef and served up grilled burgers to our family, who seemed to really to love their meat. I can't wait to see their meat in the SF Bay Area restaurant scene.

They feel that their Guinea Forest Hogs and their Mulefoot Hogs are their most promising breeds. We loved the hogs, and they seemed so happy in their open air, tree shaded pens. I also loved going out to one of their open grass fields and walking up to their Belted Galloways, and was amazed to see two calm bulls in the same group of cows. They said the cows dictate their feeding schedule: when they are done with a particular grass field, they walk up to the fence near an adjacent field they want to graze next. What a simple concept, but in such stark contrast to the industrial ranching techniques descibed in Michael Pollan's book.

We were really inspired by this unlikely pair of ranchers: she is a Ph.D. in Nutrition and is the visionary behind the ranch, he is a Systems Engineer (with EROS) by day who would like to someday be a fulltime rancher. Based on our short interaction with them, we expect to hear big things about them in the future. They have the right vision, business plan, the right skill sets, and most importantly, they are really passionate about what they are doing.

Thursday, July 13, 2006

Bio-fuels: Corn, Soybeans and Cellulosic Ethanol

From the NY Times:
Biodiesel produced from soybeans produces more usable energy and reduces greenhouse gases more than corn-based ethanol, making it more deserving of subsidies, according to a study being published this month in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The study, done by researchers at the University of Minnesota and at St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minn., points to the environmental benefits of the biodiesel over ethanol made from corn, stating that ethanol provides 25 percent more energy a gallon than is required for its production, while soybean biodiesel generates 93 percent more energy.

The study’s authors also found that ethanol, in its production and consumption, reduces greenhouse gas emissions by 12 percent, compared with fossil fuels. Biodiesel, they said, reduces such emissions 41 percent, compared with fossil fuels.

The study concludes that the future of replacing oil and gas lies with cellulosic ethanol produced from low-cost materials like switch grass or wheat straw, if it is grown on agriculturally marginal land or from waste plant material.

Wednesday, July 12, 2006

WiMax: An Excellent Primer

PBS technology pundit, Robert X. Cringely, has an excellent article on WiMax and how it stacks up against the other broadband alternatives.

Tuesday, July 11, 2006

The Azzurri

The 2006 World Cup is over, the Azzurri are the much deserved campeoni. It was a wonderful tournament, kudos to the German organizers. I wanted Italy and Brazil (or Portugal) to play in the final, but I wanted the Azzurri to win it all. I watched most of the tournament on the Spanish-language station, Univision. ABC and ESPN made me feel like I was watching a baseball or American football game -- their coverage needs to improve!

Speaking of soccer and the U.S. -- I think it is an uphill battle. Americans like high-scoring events, and while soccer has lots of action and drama, low scores are a huge impediment. Guess what the most popular and profitable sports are, from an American TV perspective? The NFL and NASCAR! Check out this article from Newsweek:
The sheer size of Fox's weekly racing operation dwarfs everything on the sports calendar, including a certain Sunday football game. "Dover alone is bigger than the Super Bowl," says Kempner, who's also a top director for Fox's NFL coverage. The production price tag for Dover, according to Kempner: $600,000. Covering the Super Bowl costs half as much. And it's only once a year.

Fox gladly shells out all that dough because its NASCAR audience is large, growing and freakishly faithful. The network averaged 9.6 million viewers per race during the 2005 season, a new high for NASCAR during an era when ratings for all other major sports, including pro football, are in decline. During the waterlogged May 1 race in Talladega, Ala., Fox's rain delay coverage—nothing but shots of cars covered by tarps and extended interviews with bored drivers—logged a higher rating than the NBA playoffs, the NFL draft and the final round of a PGA tournament. Such numbers helped propel NASCAR to an eight-year deal with Fox, ABC, ESPN and TNT that begins in 2007 and is worth a reported $4.48 billion—a 40 percent increase on the sport's previous TV deal.

... Average number of viewers per sporting event, courtesy of Nielsen:

  • NFL Football: 11.1 million
  • NASCAR Nextel Cup: 6.4 million
  • PGA Golf: 3.1 million
  • Major League Baseball: 2.8 million
  • National Basketball Association: 2.4 million
  • National Hockey League: 1 million
  • The coverage of a rain-delayed NASCAR race, featuring shots of covered cars and bored drivers, rated higher than the NBA playoffs and the PGA tournament??? I'm not a big sports fan, but I just don't get it. In light of this trend, I think the only hope for soccer in the U.S. is it's popularity among various immigrant groups.

    Monday, July 10, 2006

    Fair Trade in Scotland and Wales

    Political leaders have signed on! From the BBC news.

    Friday, July 07, 2006

    Movie Recommendations, Vol. 4

    Here are some films we have enjoyed recently:Previous Movie Recommendations can be found here:

    Thursday, July 06, 2006

    Click Fraud is a Huge Problem

    From the SF Chronicle:
    Internet advertisers paid $800 million for bogus clicks on their marketing messages last year, shaking confidence in the industry and prompting many to reduce spending with Google, Yahoo and other Web sites, according to a study to be released today.

    The survey, by Outsell Inc., a market researcher in Burlingame, is one of the most detailed looks at the nagging, high-profile problem known as click fraud. Advertisers have long complained that major Internet sites don't do enough to combat the practice or, at least, disclose the extent of it.

    Internet advertisers pay companies like Google and Yahoo every time someone clicks on their ads. The advertisers also share revenue with Internet companies based on how many advertising clicks their Web sites generate. Click fraud occurs when scammers repeatedly click on ads to cause a rival company to be overcharged. In another incarnation, fraudsters place the ads on their own Web sites and then click on the links to get a piece of the shared revenue they've agreed to with Google or Yahoo.

    In today's report, advertisers say that 14.6 percent of all clicks are bogus. Moreover, three-quarters of advertisers said they had been victims at least once.

    The perception of pervasive fraud has prompted many advertisers to change their spending. Many are asking why they should fork over money - significant amounts, in some cases -- for phantom shoppers.

    The study found that 27 percent of advertisers reduced or stopped spending on click-based advertising. An additional 10 percent said they intend to curtail spending.

    It's interesting that Google did not respond to requests for them to comment. Their business depends on continued growth in online advertising. As Cringely pointed out a few weeks ago, they need to get some AdSense:
    ... Customer service isn't a program to be optimized or a function where one genius can do the work of 20. Customer service scales linearly, and any attempt to alter that usually is accompanied by a degradation in service. So Google has customer service reps madly cutting and pasting boilerplate e-mails, but I can tell you the boilerplate often doesn't cover the required material in a useful way, and beyond that boilerplate there is nothing -- well, at least nothing we are allowed to know about. It turns out that there ARE ways to escalate through Google customer service, but you pretty much have to know where you are going because they won't tell you.

    Wednesday, July 05, 2006

    Building Resources

    My partner recently moved into a newly opened (art) studio space, so we have been spending quite a bit of time over at one of our favorite places in SF, Building Resources:
    Building REsources is San Francisco's only source for reusable and recycled building materials. We are a source of inspiration for artists and contractors alike, as well as a place to donate tax deductible material from building and demolition.

    A unique mix of old-fashioned junkyard and ongoing art installation, Building REsources offers a huge selection of material to the community at great prices.
    We built a work table and a long bench out of recycled wood, and we salvaged a nice cabinet and storage box. I love Building Resources: it is well-organized, clean, and the people are so friendly and helpful.

    Tuesday, July 04, 2006

    Italy 2, Germany 0

    Italy makes it to the 2006 World Cup Finals!

    XEROX PARC and Solar Energy

    Concentrating Solar Technologies are very promising, it's great to see investors and inventors recognizing this. From the LA Times:
    Over the years, the Palo Alto Research Center has developed numerous electricity-gobbling innovations.

    Now the storied lab that gave the world laser printing and graphical user interfaces is trying to harness the sun to power its inventions.

    The Xerox Corp. subsidiary known as PARC has produced super-efficient solar systems that experts say could make photovoltaic power — sunlight converted directly into electricity — available on a large scale at prices competitive with fossil fuels for the first time. PARC's technology is one of several promising approaches in the field.

    "Solar is growing at 30% annually," said analyst Ron Pernick of Clean Edge Inc., a research organization that specializes in alternative energy technology. Comparing the expansion to the best years of the personal computer industry, Pernick forecasts that solar power will be a $51-billion global business in 2015, up from $11.2 billion last year.

    The research at PARC is part of an eco-friendly technology trend that draws on the materials and know-how that built computer microprocessors and other high-tech staples.

    PARC's efforts dovetail with Silicon Valley's push into "clean tech," including conservation and renewable energy. Reusable paper is another of PARC's development projects. The California Clean Tech Open, sponsored by dozens of companies, venture capital firms, universities and other groups, recently received 155 competing business concepts.

    In an era of stratospheric oil prices, investors are beginning to see solar as the next big thing, despite its embryonic state. Many industry watchers expect to see large rooftop collectors for powering businesses and solar farms that will approach the size of major power plants.

    "The electricity market is as big as the sky," said Erik Straser of Mohr Davidow Ventures in Menlo Park, who has invested in emerging solar companies.

    ... The first generation of photovoltaic technology was based on large, heavy collectors — costly, inefficient systems that converted only 10% to 15% of solar rays to power. The rest reflected away or diffused as waste heat.

    Recently, a handful of companies have developed systems that use mirrors or lenses to concentrate the sun's rays as much as 500 times and increase efficiency to as much as 26%, with projections up to 50%. Higher efficiency means cheaper power.

    Several such "concentrating photovoltaic" schemes have been devised.

    Monday, July 03, 2006

    Social Networking

    A good post on what the up-and-coming sites are, and what trends are emerging.

    Saturday, July 01, 2006

    U2 Remixed

    THIS is absolutely brilliant. Hat tip to the O'Reilly Radar.